New Washing Machine Uses Plastic Chips Instead of Water

A washing machine that cleans clothes by pounding them with plastic chips could save billions of gallons of water a year, its inventors claim. The Xeros uses less than 2 per cent of the water – and energy – of a conventional model and leaves clothes almost dry, doing away with the need for a dryer. The machine uses thousands of reusable plastic chips to remove and absorb dirt. Tests have shown the machine can shift virtually all types of everyday stains, according to a team at Leeds University.

Professor Stephen Burkinshaw, who invented the machine – which uses one cup of water each cycle – said: “The performance of the Xeros process in cleaning clothes has been quite astonishing.

“We’ve shown that it can remove all sorts of everyday stains including coffee and lipstick while using a tiny fraction of the water used by conventional machines.”

About 20kg of the chips are added, along with a cup of water and detergent. The chips can be used up to 100 times, the equivalent of six months’ washing.

Xeros Ltd, the company developing and marketing the machine, believes it could be on the UK market as early as 2009 and expects it to be used in the washing and dry-cleaning industries.

I am a little skeptical of this machine. Would the plastic ruin the finish on the clothes? If I can’t get stain out with handscrubbing, I can’t see how this plastic pounding could work. I have to agree with Geo about the plastic issue.

Plus, how does it work? Do you use a dot of detergent?? Lots of questions.

In Spain (Europe) we have an important problem with the needed of water. Before this weather days (with lots of rain) we have a very seriosly problem and several restrictions in many regions.

In our region/country the save of water is (possibly) more important than 20kg of plastic. So the viability in my region (over environment contamination) I supose is most than other regions. But we don’t know (or I didn’t see) yet how it works or the reaction of the population about new-style washing machines.

sorry by 44 lbs of plastic chips (small bits) being thrown away into the environment every 6 months, per household is probably worse than all the water used in traditional washing . Unless this plastic is easily recyclable then this invention makes no sense. Plus even if it is recyclable, most people will simply throw it in the garbage. The “Great Pacific Garbage patch ” is the size of Africa already. This area is littered with millions of tones of plastics that don’t biodegrade. Sorry but more plastic is not the answer, make the stuff from corn so at least it would decompose over time.

If the economics don’t work, sustainable efforts won’t either.
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